Iditarod Strategies on View as Mushers Take “24’s”

At this point in the Iditarod, just about every top team has declared their 24, and is either recuperating, or else charging back onto the trail. The 24-hour, mandatory rest gives both dogs and mushers a chance to catch their breath and rebuild some strength. And, as Alaska Public Media’s Zachariah Hughes reports, it’s one of the main indicators of a musher’s strategy, finally giving shape to the accelerating race in the days ahead.

All over the dog lot on a frozen slough in Galena, mushers attend to dogs, their headlamps wobbling in the dark like blue lighting bugs. They’re joined by an upbeat Allen Moore, who’s just pulling off the Yukon River.

Moore scans a clipboard to see who’s come in when, joking a little with the race official checking him in.

“You know, I’m thinkin’ long term. This is a great place, why not?” “I agree.”

For Moore, the choice to stop here is motivated mostly by considerations for the dogs on his team.

“Yeah, it’s just a good checkpoint, it’s about 350 miles into the race, I got a couple young dogs that — they don’t know what’s going on, so I just want to get ‘em through it.”

Moore was aiming to take his big break here or else one more checkpoint up, in Huslia. With that decision made, he lets go of the break and slides down a small hill to park on the slough.

For other mushers, this is exactly where they aimed to be. Pete Kaiser was set on getting his dogs to Galena for a 24, and didn’t even pack enough food to get to Huslia if he’d changed his mind.

“That’s kind of the idea, they’re still doing fine, but you’ve utilized most of their energy to here, but not all of it. And I think they’re gonna bounce back nice from this rest and keep moving forward.”

Kaiser hasn’t yet taken the eight-hour rest that’s required along the Yukon River. He says he’s waiting to see how his dogs do on the trail in the next few legs. At this point in the race, rest becomes a strategic calculation, both for the energy involved and the potential plans it discloses to other competitors. As mushers think through the next three or four moves they’ll make, many are surveying leaderboards and the GPS tracker to assess who’s resting up, and who’s pushing ahead.

The trail between Galena and Huslia includes large stretches of frozen lakes, sloughs, and overland portages. Photo: Ben Matheson, KNOM.

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